Why Epic joined the Trump administration’s health tech initiative

Epic Systems, based in Verona, Wis., is among more than 60 companies partnering with the Trump administration on a federal initiative aimed at improving how patients and providers access and share health data, The CapTimes reported Aug. 29.

The project, led by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, seeks to create a “smarter, more secure and more personalized healthcare experience,” according to a July announcement. The effort will focus on two areas: giving patients more personalized tools to view and understand their medical information and expanding a nationwide network for health data exchange.

Epic, along with EHR vendors Oracle Health and Athenahealth, is expected to play a supporting role. Seth Howard, Epic’s vice president of research and development, said interoperability has long been a central priority for the company.

“When the administration put forth a proposal to help drive both helping more patients access data and to increase the use of interoperability, we felt it was important for us to be there,” Mr. Howard told The CapTimes.

While Epic’s specific role has not been finalized, Mr. Howard said the company could help link federal agencies to existing networks and support efforts to reduce repetitive paperwork, such as CMS’ goal of eliminating the need for patients to re-enter their health history at each appointment.

The administration has proposed assigning each patient a QR code that providers could scan to retrieve medical records. Mr. Howard said the approach could save time while giving clinicians a more complete picture of a patient’s health.

At Epic’s annual Users Group Meeting in August, the company announced MyChart Central, a service launching this fall that allows patients to access multiple MyChart accounts with a single login credential. Mr. Howard said the project aligns with CMS’ vision of simplifying how patients retrieve their data.

He added that Epic hopes to bring its expertise in privacy protections to the collaboration.

“We think we can help bring our expertise around managing patient data and connecting that in a way where it’s clear to patients how data is being used and what laws apply to which applications,” Mr. Howard told the publication.

CMS said it expects early results from the initiative in the first quarter of next year.

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